Page 109 of Risk It All
Not long after my conversation with Colin, I called Wes to take a personal day from my shift tonight, and even though it was last-minute, he gave it to me without any questions other than if I was okay.
I told him I would be.
Which was true.
Then I texted Lily and Jules.
Jules picked me up immediately from my apartment—with three cartons of ice cream—and drove me to her house, where Lily met us after wrapping up her shift at Purrfect Blend.
It would take time to process the news Colin had dropped today, but at least I was surrounded by the three best friends a girl could have—Lily, Jules, and ice cream.
“I’ll pass along the message to him,” Jules said with a gentle smile, reaching for a handful of gummy worms to throw into her ice cream. “Have you talked to Leo since your conversation with Colin?”
I shook my head. Before everything went down with Colin, I was ready to tell Leo how I felt. But now? What was I supposed to say?
Hey, I know I broke your heart and that your brother’s an asshole, but I love you.
It didn’t have the best ring to it.
As infuriating and emotional as the conversation with Colin was, it lifted a weight off my shoulders that I hadn’t realized was there. I’d held on to so much from my relationship with Colin, wondering if I was cut out to have a relationship. If every man I’d be with would try to change me. And if I wanted to go through getting attached to someone. A lot of what I’d experienced with Colin was because of him and the insecurities he’d projected onto me.
“If heeversteps foot in Golden Falls,” Lily said, her voice as serious and stern as I’d ever heard it, “he’s got another thing coming. He doesn’t want to find out what I’m capable of.”
“Damn, Lil,” I said, taking another bite of ice cream. Leave it to my sunshine best friend to be the one we should all have been afraid of. “I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming for him. Karma and all that shit. Maybe I’ll call Gran’s psychic. See if she can tell me anything.”
“Dottie, right?” Jules asked.
I flipped onto my stomach. “Wanna know something weird? Dottie is the same woman who interrupted my almost-kiss with Leo three years ago. She’s friends with Leo’s grandma and mom. That…doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
“Sounds like the timing wasn’t right for you two back then,” Jules said. “Are you gonna call Dottie?”
“I thought about it,” I admitted. “But I’m not. I don’t want to know what’s supposed to happen. I want to experience it—live it—myself. And…I think that means I need to tell him. Everything. How I feel. What Colin told me. Lay it all out there.”
“The timing might’ve not been right three years ago, but…” Lily’s expression softened. “I think it’s right now. It has to be.”
“Love always finds a way,” Jules said.
For once, I actually believed it.
42
ELIZA
I’d donea lot of thinking over the couple of weeks since Leo and I last spoke. Like, way more thinking than I’d ever wanted to do about what I wanted out of life and what that meant for me…and Leo.
I was tired of being scared of how I felt about him or how he felt about me.
I was tired of letting my past relationship with a pathetic man dictate how I was going to approach future relationships. Particularly one relationship with a man I couldn’t get my mind off and was utterly in love with.
I was ready to risk it all.
Maybe it took me longer than we’d both wanted, but it meant everything to me that he’d given me that time. That he hadn’t pressured me into a decision or given me an ultimatum or deadline.
Leo texted me the next day after the phone call with Colin, saying he was thinking about me and that he was sorry. I assumed Colin had told him we’d talked.
As relieved as I was to hear from him, it frustrated me that he felt like he had to apologize for his brother. I hadn’t ended upresponding to Leo, wanting to have a conversation with him in person.
I pushed open the door to Lake Ridge, inhaling deeply and heading straight to the kitchen, where I expected Leo to be.
